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Ask any junior high science student and they’ll state water and electricity don’t mix, but for the HVAC industry, both of these are shaping up to be staples of the future.
Utilizing more sustainable methods of cooling and using less energy while doing it has emerged as a clear goal for the HVAC industry over the past several years. The push for more sustainable cooling is being fueled by both consumer demand for lower utility bills and reduced carbon footprints, as well as stricter state and federal regulations honing in on electrification and decarbonization.
At AHR Expo 2025, manufacturers like Addison, EVAPCO, Rheem, LG, and Climate Control Group showcased a wide variety of innovative solutions, including ways to utilize water and new electrified appliances, that will help the industry to continue advancing toward its goal of a more sustainable future for a world that is now seeing more days of extreme, and often dangerous, heat.
Technology Driving Cooling Trends
As reducing emissions produced by HVAC equipment becomes more and more of a mandate, manufacturers have been aligning their products toward low-carbon alternatives, many powered by electricity rather than fossil fuels.
John Morris, senior regional sales engineer, commercial air conditioning, at LG, said LG’s cooling product line is working to shift away from utilizing gas systems, and at the heart of that focus is the compressor.
With federal regulations also mandating lower targets for GWP refrigerants, compressors like LG’s Gen3 Scroll Compressor are ready to meet the challenge.
The latest version of the LG Gen3 is a fixed-speed scroll compressor family that has been updated to accept A2L refrigerants and provides a solid core component for OEMs of air conditioners and/or heat pumps to offer their customers a competitive balance of advanced features and affordability.
DRIVING FORCE: A look inside one of LG’s inverter heat pumps shows how essential the scroll compressor is to high efficiency. (Staff photo)
Driving the cooling functions for units in both residential and light commercial applications, LG compressor technology and R&D are preparing to stay ahead of the curve for whatever refrigerant challenges may appear down the road.
“When legislation comes through and they’re pushing (new regulations) out, a lot of the times the technology isn’t there yet,” Morris said. “It really pushes the design team at LG to step up their game.”
At Rheem, one of the things they are really focusing on is heat pumps to align with the decarbonization and electrification trend.
Recognizing the need for heat pumps in a wide variety of applications, Rheem has developed both top and side discharge units to fit the needs of the consumer.
To cash in on tax credits and other incentives, Rheem units also check all the boxes for efficiency standards, while making sure they’re offering different options on products that will work for consumers.
“We understand that (side discharge) is the way of the future, but there are still applications for top discharge,” Tony Young, senior product manager, Residential Air Conditioning at Rheem, said. “When I think of multifamily, I still think of the rack concept — the stack piece, where you don’t want these blowing into each other.”
STILL ON TOP: While the side-discharge heat pump is gaining popularity, Rheem still makes a top discharge for places like multi-family units. (Staff photo)
For the side discharged RD17, the footprint options are as low as 36.6 inches tall and 40.2 inches wide, making it ideal for constrained locations or anywhere where a streamlined look is preferred. The top discharged RP18 also boasts some curb appeal, with curved louvered panels and modern cabinet aesthetics that not only protect internal components, but are also corrosion-resistant.
Young said they’re also utilizing R-454B and making sure they’re staying up to speed on the latest and greatest GWP refrigerants to help future-proof their systems, while also ensuring the voice of the contractors is being heard.
“When I think of our products, I talk about reliability, installability, and serviceability,” Young said. “So one of the things we did since we introduced the RD17, and with this RP18, is actually went back, took points of the customer from the contractors in the field, and improved the serviceability.”
This led to things like having only two screws that need to be removed to get the service cover off, and wider, taller access that helps to reach service valves and the compressor.
Young said they also have a focus on making sure the Rheem product portfolio aligns with sustainability targets and supports people getting the tax credits and taking advantage of the movement.
“And then trying to stay engaged with both heat pumps, dual fuel, where you have the furnace and the heat pump, making sure that we provide the reliability and installability and serviceability that we do, while also meeting those highest additions targets,” Young added.
Keeping Contractors in Mind
For larger applications and commercial settings, contractors often end up on roofs and in attics, where there are different sets of challenges.
To make matters easier, Addison designed their MI Series air handler to be modular, meaning it can be transported in sections that can be moved through a standard door.
Aside from ease of transport, the unit has quick connections, and everything can be easily accessed in order to perform maintenance, and the module can be decoupled if more major repairs are necessary. Basically, the whole unit can be customized to meet specific project needs, as the air handler also supports various airflow configurations to meet energy efficiency needs, no matter if it’s a new build or retrofit application.
The unit on display at AHR was water-sourced, which can also utilize a remote condensing unit, making it a split system. The unit can also be used as a heat pump.
PIECE IT TOGETHER: Modularity allows contractors to not only get Addison’s MI Series air handler through the door. (Staff photo)
Addison starts by using high-end components but also keeps in mind that someday, another refrigerant change may occur. Currently, the MI Series is running on R-454, but Gus Olivera, director of engineering at Addison, noted that if someday a switch were made to a flammable refrigerant, that wouldn’t render the unit obsolete.
“So what’s going to happen for basically all of us manufacturers? We’re going to have to start producing smaller circuits with diameter pipe so they can handle the high pressures of CO2,” Olivera said.
“The nice thing is this box is very flexible — they can accommodate a lot,” Olivera said. “We can grow the size of this box if we need it to get different types of coils. So this platform actually allows us a lot of flexibility, again, for all the way from water-source heat pumps to split systems to hybrid technology wraparound — everything so we can accommodate it on this on this cabinet.”
Thinking Big By Going Small
To keep sustainable cooling apparatuses running smoothly, technicians need access to clear data.
Climate Control Group’s Wireless Service Tool, just introduced at AHR, promises to also make things easier for technicians, putting information right at their fingertips.
NO APP NEEDED: Climate Control Group introduced its Wireless Service Tool, which allows contractors to access information from their photos without the need to download another app. (Staff photo)
“(WST) enables any technician to access our Water Source Heat Pump products from their phone without the need to download an app, create a user account, or have on-site internet,” said Caleb Fox, director of product management for ClimateMaster Inc. “The WST offers streamlined start-up and commissioning while reducing installation and maintenance costs. This enables the technician to interface with the CLM WSHP system from the ease of your cell phone.”
Climate Control Group is also utilizing water as a medium to efficiently regulate temperature.
“Our products use water as the means of heat transfer,” said Fox. “Water is a much better conductor of heat, and thus, it takes less energy to move heat from one place to another using water as the medium of heat transfer as opposed to air. Due to this, water-source products are fundamentally more efficient than air-source heat pumps or air conditioners.
‘Wave’ Of The Future
The surface of the earth is about 71% covered in water, and it’s looking like water is going to be covering a bigger portion of the HVAC industry in the near future.
At Evapco, Troy Reineck, business development manager, said they’ve developed a full spectrum of heat rejection and fully evaporative gear.
Water, while an excellent coolant, does leave mineral content behind following the evaporation process, meaning the water needs to be treated to mitigate the amount of residue left behind. Evapco has invested a lot in its Pulse-Pure, which accomplishes all of the necessary water treatment without the use of a bunch of chemicals, which reduces the impacts associated with shipping, handling, and storage substances that can have a negative impact on the environment.
NO CHEMICALS, NO PROBLEM: EVAPCO’s Pulse-Pure provides a complete water treatment system for evaporative cooling equipment, without the use of chemicals. (Staff photo)
For a booming sector of the industry — data centers, battery plants — Troy said water-cooled HVAC is going to be huge in the next few years due to its efficiency in high-heat environments and its ability to help reduce water consumption.
As an example, Reineck spoke of one of their customers, who had a daily max water consumption of 1 million gallons. Through the use of its technology, Evapco was able to reduce that by over 200,000 gallons.
“It sounds kind of cliché, but we’re not trying to sell you a product, we’re trying to solve a problem,” Reineck said. “It took a lot of creative planning about equipment and everything else to get them to like 780,000 gallons a day. And it was like a huge win.”
Significant investment in R&D is what’s helping them drive down energy consumption, and helping to lower carbon footprints.
Meeting newer, more stringent energy standards can be a challenge, but Evapco leans on the tremendous amount of data it has available to help tailor solutions to the end user, because in most cases, requirements are different depending on location.
The Path Forward
As the HVAC industry continues to adapt to the challenges laid at its feet, it’s clear there will be an increased need for sustainable cooling products that can meet energy efficiency standards and evolving customer expectations.
Young thinks the ever-increasing efficiency and also heightened awareness are two key factors that will drive the sustainable cooling sector in the future.
“As people keep saying it’s no longer a global trend — it’s here, and so what you’re now seeing is the technology respond to that interest in green and sustainability,” Young said.
The desire to electrify is going to place more strain on the nation’s electrical grid, but Fox said geothermal heat pumps can help reduce some of that demand, even during peak demand time, because they exchange heat with the constant temperature of the earth instead of trying to dump heat into hot air or extracting heat from cold air.
“As we move away from fossil fuels to heat domestic hot water, electric hot water generation is not efficient. The great news is that the by-product of cooling a home/building is moving heat out of the space as waste,” said Fox. “The future will be recapturing that heat and moving it into domestic hot water for more efficient hot water generation.”